Field
The subject matter disclosed herein relates to transmitting data over Ethernet with minimal delays, and more particularly relates to transmitting data over Ethernet in accordance with Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE).
Description of the Related Art
Ethernet is a ubiquitous networking technology popular in various network environments. Many data centers use Ethernet for TCP/IP networks. Many of these same data centers use Fibre Channel (FC) for storage, such as a storage area network (SAN). Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) is an encapsulation of FC frames and allows FC communication over Ethernet, which can significantly reduce costs, cabling, and complication.
In order to support FCoE, certain changes to Ethernet are required; for example, the Ethernet protocol may be enhanced to improve reliability and ensure there is no loss of FCoE frames. Changes and enhancements may compensate for the fact that Ethernet, unlike FC, has no flow control. The various enhancements make Ethernet suitable for communicating FC frames, but can have a negative impact on performance.
In particular, FCoE may struggle with increased latency. For many types of data, this increase in latency may not pose a serious problem. However, certain types of data may be particularly sensitive to latency. For such data, the inherent latency gaps in Ethernet may cause significant problems.